Gaining Freedom from Male Oppression in Sylvia Plath's "Daddy"

Summary: Examines "Daddy", by Sylvia Plath, on the theme of male oppression and struggling to become free from a father's influence. Also uses examples from the poem "Lady Lazarus".
Keywords: feminist, feminism

Plath's poem "Daddy" describes feelings of oppression from childhood and conjures up the struggle many women face in a male-dominated society. The conflict of this poem is male authority versus the right of a female to control her own life and to be free of male domination.

This poem starts out describing her struggle as one that has been unresolved because she was just a child when her father died. "Daddy, I have had to kill you. / You died before I had time / Marble-heavy, a bag full of God," (lines 6-8). She gives us the sense that she had built up her father so much in her mind after he died that the weight of these thoughts and imaginations became too heavy to carry around anymore and she finally realized that in order for her to move on in life she...